I have felt a compelling need to help my students with file management. They cannot find things on their jump drive - or was that on their home computer - or their ipad? Where? It is time to help them get organized. My first week, instead of teaching them how to build their PLN/ igoogle page is instead on setting up the cloud functions and file management workflows to help them thrive.

Have 3 file folders in Documents (my students also have a "personal" folder in Dropbox for their cloud files where they do this as well.)

@ctive
@rchive
@junk drawer

It starts with the @ sign to put the folder at the top.

@ctive
The active folder is for what you're working on right now - that is it! When you're done, you pick one of the other folders to move it to.

@rchive
These are things you want to keep. For my students these are resumes, term papers, movies. The things they want to take with them after the course. Also anything that they wish to keep in a efolio to show a future employer.

@junkdrawer
These items are things they created for class but after the semester or course that they don't want to keep.

Then, at the end of the semester or term they can delete junkdrawer items, take the archive with them. They are also doing this at home and their @rchive items are going to go on their external hard drive.

Everything should just be 3 clicks away! This great trick is a beauty!

Creating a Self-Cleaning MachineFor Advanced users

If you use this procedure personally and have a Mac, you can use Hazel. If you have a PC you can use Belvedere. I have Belvedere go through my junk drawer and ask me if I ant to delete what I haven't used in 6 weeks. I also have it archive my archive folder onto my external hard drive at certain intervals.

Every Classroom Matters (Recent Shows)

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